The Fungus Among Us
Many of us have been entertained by the manufactured horror of movies like the Blob where slimy creatures consume everything they touch. But the fun fades quickly when the monsters leave the silver screen and appear in the real world. Fortunately, while the looming disaster insidiously growing within the walls of our homes is aggressively attacking the structures in which we live, it doesn't eat humans - at least not directly.
There is a fungus spreading across the land, which even as you read these words of warning, is literally eating through walls around us. The fungus has always been in the environment, but wasn't a problem until changes in composite siding formulas about 12 years ago made our homes far more appetizing. Now the fungus is being treated to a sumptuous feast, consuming with delight the hard earned investments of unsuspecting families. Worst of all, the fungus not only destroys the physical substance of an infested building, but also emits toxins that can damage the health of those living inside.
Composite siding has become one of the most commonly used siding materials for new construction over the last couple decades. Manufactured primarily out of wood chips and resinous glue, composite siding appeared to offer a low cost alternative to real wood or vinyl siding. And at first it actually delivered on that promise.
Early composite siding was manufactured with such a high resin content that installers had to drill a pilot hole in order to drive a nail through it. The formaldehyde used in the resin is a potent fungicide and likely helped to protect against the many wood destroying organisms that occur naturally in most of the same areas we humans find attractive as homesites. The durability of this early siding earned a market acceptance that short sighted greedy manufacturers later betrayed and exploited for their own short term gain - setting in motion the current disaster for homeowners.
About 12 years ago, environmentalists began pressuring the government to mandate the elimination of formaldehyde from manufactured products. Composite siding was one of the many building materials impacted by the new policy. Composite siding manufacturers complied with the new restrictions by changing to resin formulas that don't include formaldehyde.
Around the same time, composite siding manufacturers decided to further accommodate their short sighted greed by "adjusting" the proportions of wood to resin in their products. The wood material used in composite siding, ranging from chips down to sawdust, is recycled from the waste products of other manufacturing processes. The resin, on the other hand, must be intentionally manufactured.
By increasing the wood waste content in their composite siding products, the manufacturers laughed all the way to the bank with their pockets full of the money they were saving on resin. They didn't care in the slightest that the real victims of their short sighted greed would be the health and wealth of those consumers who continued to purchase their products based on the now undeserved reputation of their earlier goods.
It would be bad enough if composite siding just rotted away and had to be replaced. But once the fungus is given a good start in your siding, it quickly expands its infestation into the underlying substructure of your walls - compromising the structure of your building and greatly increasing your repair costs. By the time fungal damage on the exterior surface of your failing siding becomes obvious to the untrained eye, the fungus has already started damaging the sheathing under the siding, and may even have reached the studs. All wood that has become infested by the fungus will have to be removed. The longer you wait to fix the problem, the more it will cost.
Many people are sensitive to the spores and other toxins emitted by the fungus growing in their walls. While some types of wood eating fungus are not themselves directly toxic, even the relatively benign types create an an attractive environment for other more toxic funguses and molds to colonize. Long term exposure resulting from living in close proximity to fungal by-products can also cause adverse reactions in those who are not immediately affected. There are ways to partly mitigate the health threats of the fungus living in your composite siding by altering the air flow through your home, but the only real solution is to either remove the fungus or remove yourself.
If you decide that no slimy fungus is going to chase you out of your home, your battles have just begun. Your biggest problem will be dealing with the manufacturer of the failing siding currently on your building. Most of the composite siding installed in the last decade came with warranties - and paying off on all those warranties could cost the greedy manufacturers all of the ill gotten gains they've pocketed over the years by compromising the quality of their product. It shouldn't surprise you that having sold out their integrity long ago, these same greedy companies are now putting their maximum efforts into finding ways to avoid honoring their warranties, not into helping the innocent victims of the failing composite siding disaster they created.
There are at least ten manufacturers of composite siding whose products are now failing. To further complicate things, there are a mixture of approaches available for each - warranty claims, out of court settlements, arbitration, class action suits, independent lawsuits, etc. The only guarantee for the unwary and uninformed is that playing the game the way the manufacturer wants you to play will result in the absolute minimum return - if you manage to recover anything at all.
You wouldn't let your opponent tie your shoelaces together in a foot race, and you shouldn't let the manufacturers tilt the playing field in your failing composite siding claim. Knowledge is definitely power in this game, and the manufacturers are banking on each consumer coming to the table an unsuspecting innocent, unaware of the array of dirty tricks that will be used to cheat them out of their claim.
But you don't have to play the timid sheep being led to a shearing by the manufacturer's lawyers. The greedy manufacturers have played their nasty games enough times, and angered enough people with their dirty dealings, that they've created a new industry dedicated to assisting consumers through the minefields to a reasonable settlement. You can benefit from the hard learned lessons of those who went before you, and deal with the greedy manufacturer responsible for your siding problems as an informed and aware consumer.
More information about this rapidly growing threat to the health and financial well-being of American families can be found at: American Siding Consultants
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